Recy Taylor was a 24-year-old sharecropper from Alabama who was kidnapped and raped by six white men on her way home from church in 1944.

Speaking to NPR's Michel Martin in 2011, Taylor had this to say about her attack: "They blindfolded me. After they messed over and did what they were going to do me, say, we're going to take you back. We're going to put you out. But if you tell it, we're going to kill you."

Despite a confession from one of the men involved in the attack, two grand juries declined to indict the men.

Taylor's story helped rally activists across the nation, including Rosa Parks. After Taylor's attack, the NAACP sent Parks, an investigator, to look into the case. The same year as Taylor's attack, Parks helped organize the Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor, a group that would go on to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott.